ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY Orthodox Calendar
Orthodox Calendar 2021
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Святитель Петр Аргосский Жены-мироносицы у Гроба Господня Печерская икона Божией Матери с предстоящими Антонием и Феодосием
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May 3
Sunday
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May 16
3rd Sunday of Pascha. Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women. Tone 2.
No fast.

Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомMartyrs Timothy the Reader and his wife Maura, of Antinoe in Egypt (ca. 286). Совершается служба с полиелеемSt. Theodosius, abbot of the Kiev Caves Monastery and founder of coenobitic monasticism in Russia (1074).

St. Peter the Wonderworker, bishop of Argos (ca. 928). Translation of the Dormition Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos from Constantinople to the Kiev Caves Lavra (1073). St. Theophanes of Vatopedi, metropolitan of Peritheorion (14th c.). Schema-abbess Juliana (1393) and Schemanun Eupraxia (1394), of the Monastery of the Conception in Moscow. Cовершается служба, не отмеченная в Типиконе никаким знакомSt. Tamara, queen of Georgia (13th c.). St. Gregory, bishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl (1416).

“Svensk” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1288).

Great-martyr Xenia the Wonderworker, of the Peloponnese (318). St. Ecumenius the Wonderworker, bishop of Tricca (4th c.). St. Mamai, catholicos of Georgia (744). Sts. Michael and Arsenius the Georgians (9th c.). St. Ansfried, bishop of Utrecht (1010). Martyr Paul of Vilnius, Lithuania (17th c.). New Martyr Achmed (Ahmet) the Calligrapher, at Constantinople (1682). St. Irodion, abbot, of Lainici Monastery (Romania) (1900). Martyrs Diodorus and Rhodopianus, deacon, at Aphrodisia in Anatolia (285-305). Finding of the relics of St. Luke of Mt. Steirion (953). Sts. Silas (1783), Paisius and Nathan (1784), monks of Putna Monastery (Moldova).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. [Acts 6:1–7; Mark 15:43–16:8]

   The tireless women! They would not give sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids (cf. Ps. 132) until they found their Beloved! But the men as if dragged their feet: they went to the tomb, saw it empty, and remained in confusion about what it could mean because they did not see Him. But does this mean that they had less love than the women? No, here was a reasoning love which feared making a mistake due to the high price of this love and its object. When they too saw and touched Him, then each of them, not with his tongue, like Thomas, but with his heart confessed: my Lord and my God (John 20:28), and already nothing could separate them from the Lord. The myrrh-bearers and the Apostles are an image of the two sides of our life: feeling and reasoning. Without feeling life is not life; without reasoning life is blind, offers little sound fruit and much is wasted. We must combine both. Let feeling go forward and arouse; let reason determine the time, place, method and generally the practical arrangement of what the heart suggests for us to do. Within, the heart comes first, but in practical application, reason comes first. When the feelings become educated in discerning good and evil, then perhaps it will be possible to rely on the heart alone. Just as shoots, flowers and fruits grow naturally from a living tree, so does goodness alone emerge from the heart, rationally mingling into the course our life.

Articles

Martyr Timothy the Reader and his wife in Egypt

Saints Timothy and Maura suffered for the faith during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian (284-305).

St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

Eighteen years after the Saint's blessed repose, the monastery brethren decided to transfer his relics to the new cathedral church. The abbot, together with monk Nestor the chronicler, went to the cave to dig up the relics and discovered them to be incorrupt. Accompanied by a large crowd of people, the relics were solemnly transferred to the Dormition Cathedral on August 14, 1092. And in 1106 Saint Theodosius was added to the list of canonized saints.

St. Peter the Wonderworker and Bishop of Argos

Saint Peter the Wonderworker, Bishop of Argos in the Peloponnesos, lived during the ninth and early tenth centuries, and was raised by pious parents.

Holy Queen Tamar (†1213)

Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze

In 1166 a daughter, Tamar, was born to King Giorgi III (1155–1184) and Queen Burdukhan of Georgia. The king proclaimed that he would share the throne with his daughter from the day she turned twelve years of age.

Icon of the Mother of God of Sven

The Sven Caves Icon of the Mother of God was painted by Saint Alypius of the Caves (August 17).

Great Martyr Xenia the Wonderworker, of the Peloponnesus

One of the sweetest saints in all Orthodoxy remained for seventeen centuries in comparative oblivion unknown, unhonoured, and unsung - until she chose, at the bidding of God, to reveal herself to a humble priest, in the bustling City of New York.

Holy Catholicos Mamai (†744)

Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze

Saint Mamai served as chief shepherd of the Georgian faithful from 731 to 744.The information we have about his life is scarce, but it is known that St.Mamai was abbot of ZedazeniMonastery and died a martyr for Christ.

Venerable Fathers Mikael and Arsen the Georgians (9th century)

Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze

The biographies of Sts. Mikael and Arsen the Georgians have unfortunately not been preserved. It is known that they were contemporaries of Patriarch Sergius of Jerusalem (843–859). The following entry is recorded in the synodicon of Jerusalem’s Holy Cross Monastery: “Our Holy Fathers Mikael and Arsen, founders of Olympus.”
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